Tropico 5’s Big Cheese DLC is a fromage homage

Since El Presidente is already the figurative big cheese, I guess it makes some kind of vague sense to literally get him involved in cheesemaking too. At least … I think it makes sense. Tropico is a series that’s all over the map tonally speaking, and Tropico 5 doesn’t seem to be any different. One minute it’s jokes about cheese, the next it’s political dissidents being executed in midnight raids.

Is any of this satire? A pastiche of vicious regimes like Azerbaijan that have a terrible record for making journalists ‘disappear,’ but also sponsor the Athletico Madrid football team and get travel features in The Guardian? I just don’t know any more. It probably mostly is.

Anyhow, this DLC (available today for $4.00 USD) is, indeed, all about cheese. El Presidente wants to create his own cheese brand, and you’re going to help him. Or help yourself, I guess, since you’re basically playing as the dictator.

Here’s what The Big Cheese DLC adds to the game, in handy bullet points I stole from the marketing materials.